


Father of Lies

by sweetcarolanne



Category: Vampire Chronicles - Anne Rice
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Childhood, Children, Family, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Loss of Innocence, Memories, Past Relationship(s), Plans, Vampires, Violent Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-15 21:58:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13040277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetcarolanne/pseuds/sweetcarolanne
Summary: Claudia had fully intended to kill Lestat, and in so doing free herself and Louis to seek the truth about the existence of other vampires. But unexpectedly, that very truth found her...





	Father of Lies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sonsofdurin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sonsofdurin/gifts).



> Dear recipient, I do hope you like this story and that it is something along the lines of what you wanted! I really enjoyed writing this for you as I do love this fandom and these characters so much!
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I do not own the characters and am making no money from this. Suing is therefore futile.
> 
> Many thanks to my beta who wishes to remain anonymous.

She had fully intended to kill him.

With all the seething, silent rage of a woman scorned and the anguish of a child denied her cravings, Claudia had carefully plotted and schemed to put an end to the vampire she had loved as if he were her father. 

And if all went to plan, she reasoned in her cold fury, Lestat would meet a swift but hopefully painful end, freeing her and Louis to go in search of the truths she so needed to find. 

He had said that he could not endure her, threatening and raging at the vampire daughter he claimed to adore. All because she asked to be told those truths. It would have cost Lestat nothing to open himself to Claudia and Louis, the ones who had always followed him so faithfully. Why was Lestat so possessive of his knowledge? Why could such important vampire lore not be available to those Lestat had always regarded as so precious to him?

It was almost as if Lestat did not want the family he had created any more. And family meant everything to Claudia, now more than ever. 

There had to be other vampires in existence beyond the tiny, but now fracturing, unit that Lestat, Louis and Claudia had formed. Although her delicate and seemingly fragile body would always remain that of a little girl, her yearnings for the wider world were distinct and irrevocable signs of nascent womanhood. 

With Lestat gone, that world with its ancient wonders to be explored and new discoveries to be made, and its endless supply of tempting mortal prey to be enticed and killed, would belong to Claudia. And so would Louis, for that matter; it was a notion that always made Claudia’s cupid-bow lips twist into a crafty little smile when she thought nobody could see her.

Curling up against Louis’ chest in the safety of his coffin as the sun rose outside each day, Claudia would imagine what it would be like to have Louis be hers and only hers eternally, and these thoughts, more pleasurable than even the sweetest taste of blood, would carry her into blissful sleep until the night brought wakefulness again.

Absinthe and laudanum had both been purchased and put aside for the fateful night that Claudia had envisioned with such inner glee. She had sought potential victims to use as bait with a most discerning eye, pondering carefully over what kind of helpless human might tempt Lestat’s bloodlust the most and lull him into a false sense of security about Claudia’s pleas for a reconciliation with him.

She had longed for Lestat to be gone so passionately that it was like an ache inside her, a sensation akin to pain, consuming and possessing her fierce and no longer childlike heart. The father of lies would soon spin his vicious web of falsehoods no more.

Then all changed with a single moonrise, and the angel-faced children Claudia had selected to lure Lestat into her trap were spared to live a little while longer.

Claudia had set up a feast of delicious delicacies for the little boys, and had gone out to seek an evening’s sustenance for herself before leading the innocent victims to their doom. She dressed herself in the prettiest clothes she had, all ruffles and ribbons, her golden curls carefully dishevelled so that she would look the part of the lost child she would claim to be as she gazed forlornly upon her chosen mortal and implored him or her for help in sobbing tones. 

Although there would be no time to dally with her prey and walk away from the kill clutching an exquisite new porcelain doll (which she would very likely find herself destroying or abandoning later) or wearing the expensive bonnet with blue satin bows she had been eyeing for several nights now, Claudia would enjoy the rush of power she always got from such seductions as an aperitif to the downfall of Lestat. 

Her steps were light and her eyes were alive with fiendish anticipation as she made her way through the shadowy streets, ever alert for a likely stranger to ensnare with the fluttering of her long-lashed eyes and the trembling outstretch of one frail little hand. 

Mortal minds were delightfully transparent to Claudia as she passed; already sympathetic eyes were trained upon her, and human faces were filled with concern to see such a beautiful child all alone and appearing to be so vulnerable. It was a game that Claudia wished she could prolong, relishing their compassion as she hid her predatory nature from them all, but she needed to feed, and soon.

Her very body language toyed with the gazes of passers-by; keeping her head low and her tiny shoulders slumped, Claudia ceased her delicate, light-stepping walk and began to move as if she were despondent. All the while, she stayed alert, anticipating the moment when she would hear a gentle adult voice offering assistance, and the sweet seduction that was killing would begin in earnest.

Until a strange tingling of her spine and an unseasonal chill in the air stopped Claudia dead in her tracks. An unseen presence seemed to be touching her thoughts with its own, and she shuddered visibly at the unwelcome sensation. 

A slender figure suddenly stood before her, moving gracefully but far too swiftly to be a mortal, moonlight glinting on his auburn hair and accentuating his eerie beauty. Claudia stood still with shock at first, then took a few steps back, ready to turn and flee as if she were in truth the terrified human child she appeared to be.

“Don’t try to run,” said the whispered voice that only Claudia, with her sharpened preternatural senses, could possibly detect. “I can catch up with you in less than a fraction of a second, and you know that well enough.”

The words were chilling ones, yet there was no menace in the tone of the vampire speaking them, or in his eyes, which were full of an unusual wonder and curiosity, as if he too were a mere child.

His face and body were those of a very young man, hardly more than a boy; his features were of such unearthly beauty that they could have belonged to an angel in a Renaissance painting. Yet Claudia could somehow sense that this vampire was far older than he seemed, as there was no childish innocence in that haunting gaze.

“Only Lestat could have made you,” the vampire said, and he lifted one slim, pale hand to touch Claudia’s curls as she backed away from him. “Only he would dare. No rules, mortal or immortal, have ever bound him, and the hubris that he brings to the vampire state is limitless. A woman in the form of an eternal child… yes, only he would take you as his fledgling.”

And then he was gone, leaving Claudia alone and unharmed yet trembling with a terror she had not felt since her human days.

She fled back towards her home through the darkened streets, her little feet carrying her as if by raw instinct towards Louis, who had just set out upon his own quest for nourishment. Cradled in the arms of her protector, Claudia began to feel a little safer as she laid her head upon Louis’s shoulder, whispering of her bizarre encounter as he bore her through the doorway of their sanctuary.

Lestat was standing by the window, his fingers clenching around a fistful of velvet curtain as he gazed out through the glass. His whole stance displayed an apprehension that neither Claudia nor Louis had seen him show before.

Louis set Claudia down upon the ground, and she walked towards Lestat; her countenance was blanker than a doll’s although her eyes were filled with a strange new comprehension.

“Lestat. Father, the father of lies. Does the truth mean anything to you at all? Has it ever done?” she asked, and Louis took a protective step closer to her, though he knew not who, or what, he might need to protect her from.

Lestat’s possible wrath was not the only threat to consider now.

“She has seen him, Lestat,” Louis said, his own cold gaze meeting that of the tense vampire.

“And I felt him. I sensed his arrival in New Orleans, long before tonight. I always knew this day would come, but I had no idea that he would have the daring to do… this.” 

The expression on Lestat’s face was as unreadable to his fledglings as his thoughts were, although the stance of his body remained stiffened with foreboding and his eyes had a faraway look to them, as if he was not seeing his present companions, but something or someone else entirely.

“To show himself to Claudia like this… wrapping himself up in mystery, biding his time, waiting for exactly the right moment to reveal himself. I don’t know whether to admire him or curse him for such juvenile and unbecoming games!”

“He... meant something to you. Who is he?”

As he spoke, Louis also took a step closer to Lestat, and laid a hand on Claudia’s shoulder. Claudia stood mutely, her eyes widened with uncertainty as if she truly were the frail and unsure youngster she appeared to be.

“His name is Armand,” Lestat answered enigmatically, finally releasing the drapes from his clenched fist and beginning to pace the floor, addressing his next words to the stunned Claudia. 

“Do not let his youthful form deceive you, if it has so far. He is no more a naïve young thing than you are. He is ancient and powerful, even older than I am, and like any and every vampire, he is very, very dangerous.”

Lestat stopped his pacing and gestured sweepingly towards the window. “Yes, there are many other vampires out there, and I still stand by my initial wish to keep you, Claudia, and you, Louis, away from them. For the most part, they are deathly dull creatures, making ridiculous rules for themselves and enjoying their immortal state far less than many mortals enjoy their finite lives. I have come across cultists who dubbed themselves “Children of Satan” and haunted graveyards like ghosts clad in rusty black; vampires who were even afraid to look upon crosses or crucifixes, who believed they led an existence cursed by God! Can you possibly imagine anything more preposterous than that?”

Lestat waited for a reaction from his fledglings, and seemed satisfied by the silent shake of the head he saw from each one as he continued.

“Fools, every one of them… but lethal and determined fools who would happily destroy any vampire who spurns their turgid system of belief. Such was Armand until I burst upon his world, shattering his illusions and revealing to him all that being a vampire truly had to offer. Not only the delights of the kill, which he already knew too well, but the knowledge that rules, if they exist, are meant to be broken! And that there is so much to be gained by moving among mortals, as we three do, and opening ourselves to the wonders revealed by every passing era!”

“He would have hated that. But if he is anything like you and I, he would have wanted what you had,” Claudia whispered. Lestat gave her a slightly bitter smile.

“Very perceptive of you, my dear. And very likely, Armand still does desire what I possess… the knowledge, as well as the courage, to exist as a magnificent alpha predator in this dynamic world we inhabit. He wanted to come with me when I put an end to the self-deluded subsistence he endured before, but I refused to take him along.”

“And now he has found you – or rather, found us.”

Claudia gently detached herself from Louis’s reassuring touch and moved towards Lestat. A smile of her own was slowly forming on her doll-like face, oddly reminiscent of the devious one when she had thrilled herself with plans to despatch Lestat, the plans which would now have to be abandoned, perhaps for something far more ambitious.

“He is ancient, you say, and of great power? And yet he requires your help to survive in the modern world? This is a state of affairs we can turn to our advantage. This vampire will have healing blood, to strengthen and protect us all from the threat of the mad cultists you spoke of… and so much more that could be of value to the three of us.”

A slender, childish hand laced its gentle fingers through the larger ones of Lestat, and Claudia looked up at her maker as if she were once again the unknowing apprentice of a master vampire instead of the alluring schemer she had, through that same master vampire’s mentorship, become.

“It would be neither wise, nor safe to…” Louis began, but Lestat cut him off with an affectionate squeeze as he drew both Louis and Claudia into his arms.

“Indeed not, but have you ever known me to consider _wisdom_ or _safety_ when there is _fun_ to be had?” Lestat declared with a conspiratorial wink and a smirk.


End file.
